of the Episcopal Church

Category: Book of Occasional Services

The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music is presenting essays describing portions of our Blue Book report and explaining the thinking that shaped our conclusions. We invite your comments and hope that our conversation here will be beneficial to the legislative committees of General Convention.

On certain occasions, the Book of Common Prayer isn’t quite what’s called for. It’s not that the prayer book doesn’t work well enough; it’s just that there are occasions in the life of every congregation that need to be celebrated, and that aren’t between the covers of the red (or blue) book. And although many church folks can craft their own liturgies for special occasions, it’s good to have a book for the whole church to use that celebrates what’s not in the BCP. In the current triennium, the SCLM worked to complete the Book of Occasional Services (BOS)–work that began in the last triennium and is a revision of the BOS authorized in 2006. General Convention expressed a need for a revised book that would add new resources, subtract little-used ones, and respond to the church’s desire to include material that was relevant to the diverse membership we enjoy as a denomination.

The Book of Occasional Services is designed to give congregations resources that both form our members in the faith and support the liturgical goals of the Book of Common Prayer. The intention is not to duplicate resources in the BCP but to enrich, seasonally in many instances, the purposes of the prayer book. We have worked to reflect the prayer book’s ethos in the BOS, paying attention to the sound of its language and the shape of its rites. We’ve also asked the church to give us material that might be included in the BOS, materials that are being broadly used in congregations already like St. Francis Day animal blessings and rites for December 12, Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe. Congregations across the church generously shared their resources with us for these and other rites.

Where it seemed appropriate, instead of included complete rites, we included paragraphs of stated principles and guidelines for crafting liturgies in particular contexts. For instance, the resources for Día de los Muertos are an outline. A part of the outline is an expressed desire that those congregations that wish to develop and use the rite will do so in collaboration with communities for whom the celebration is already a culturally significant event. We hope that congregations will draw together, creating opportunities for deeper appreciation and love among their members.

Another principle that guided our work was working to reduce redundancy of rites. Some of the rites in the previous edition of the BOS were seasonal variations of the same thing, for example, house blessings in Epiphany and Easter. Instead of having two separate rites, we decided to have a single rite with seasonal variations. Again, this is an opportunity for congregations to think creatively about using the resources provided in the BOS. And since some of the material in the previous edition of the BOS is already included in other resources, we decided to take those out of this revision of the BOS (this includes the Lucernaria and Confractoria.

A final guiding principle for the work of BOS revision was paying attention to the cardinal rule of love. Just as Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another by washing each other’s feet, we were guided by the principle of loving one another in truth and action, not just in word or speech. This consideration led us to draw the widest possible net in finding resources to include. It also helped us to attend to some pastorally sensitive rites. One of these is a rite to be used when a member of the congregation returns after a difficult absence, called “Welcoming After Traumatic Absence.” Another pastorally meaningful liturgy is called “Rite for Receiving or Claiming a New Name,” designed to be used by those who, because of gender transition or other reason, choose to change their names. These and other new texts were very much developed from the bottom-up and not from the top-down; many thanks to those who shared resources with us.

We hope that this revision of the BOS will serve the needs of the church for years to come and that the next revision will be carried out with the same level of loving attention invested in the past two triennia.

Between now and General Convention in 2018, the SCLM’s Book of Occasional Services Committee will carry out Resolution A059 of the 2015 General Convention, which directs the SCLM to “continue its work on a comprehensive revision of the Book of Occasional Services, to seek widespread input on the table of contents and scope of the revision, and to report on its progress to the 79th General Convention.”

New liturgies to be developed for consideration of the 2015 General Convention include:

Las Posadas
Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos
Lunar New Year
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Blessing of Holy Water
Rubric and Directions for Short-Form House Blessing
Quinceañera
Reincorporation after Traumatic Absence
St. Francis Day/Blessing of the Animals
Naming Rite for Receiving or Claiming a New Name

Liturgies to be revised include:

Liturgical Materials Honoring God in Creation
Seasonal Blessings
Concerning the Advent Wreath
Advent Festival of Lessons and Music
Station at a Christmas Creche
Christmas Festival of Lessons and Music
Candlemas Procession
Tenebrae
Preparation for Adults for Holy Baptism
Concerning the Catechumenate
Admission of Catechumens
During the Catechumenate
Enrollment for Candidates for Baptism
During Candidacy
The Presentation of the Creed
The Presentation of the Lord’s Prayer
Concerning Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows
Preparation of Baptized Persons for Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant
Welcoming Returning Members and Members Baptized in Other Traditions
Enrollment for Lenten Preparation
Maundy Thursday Rite of Preparation for The Paschal Holy Days
The Preparation of Parents and Godparents for the Baptism of Infants and Young Children
A Public Service of Healing
Recognition of Ministries in the Church and in the World
Distribution of Holy Communion by Lay Eucharistic Ministers to persons who are ill or infirm

If you would like to submit a liturgy to the SCLM’s Book of Occasional Services Committee, please email it to Ana Hernández at ana@anahernandez.org.

About this blog:

The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has created this site to invite feedback about some of our current projects. We hope that this conversation will be a way to renew and enliven a shared vision of the church’s mission in the world.

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